


risk it all and see.

by harlxquinn



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: References to a kid being kidnapped and drugged, backstory for my main warlock’s life before her revival, bc it never ends well when your mother’s banging a don, calli’s mom literally exists as a character to deal with my Feelings about spider, i do love me a good mob boss, ill advised dabbling with thanatonautics, since they all basically know each other, with a few references to my other guardians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:09:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25568776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harlxquinn/pseuds/harlxquinn
Summary: A Warlock rediscovers her past life prior to awakening as a Guardian.
Kudos: 3





	risk it all and see.

The images come to her first in the darkness before Lethe wakes her into a hellscape. _Harsh voices in an alien language, huge hulking figures, a sickly sweet taste on her tongue that makes her head spin, four bright blue eyes over a rebreather splashed with dark ichor and the familiar comforting scent of pomegranate and honeysuckle._ Calliope has no time to process the images that accompany her new life as a Guardian as she sprints through a labyrinthine nightmare at her Ghost’s urging, Thrall snapping at her heels as she finds her way onto a somewhat damaged but useable ship to escape the asteroid that promptly disappears into what seems to be a tear in reality itself. 

It’s not until later as she stares at the dark roof of her new room in the Warlock dormitories toying with a strange purple-blue crystal necklace she had awoken wearing, still plagued by sleeplessness, that she gets the chance to try and process the untethered images that had called her back to life. Lethe had done her best to explain the fact that Guardians more often than not return with no memories of their lives before on their resurrection, but there’s something about what she’s sure are memories that keeps her awake well into that first night.

**\-- -- -- -- --**

Languages come easy to Calliope as she throws herself into her new life. Eliksni is almost second nature to her, Hive symbols are confusing but have their own strange logic to them, but it’s Ulurant that brings with it the greatest surprise. It takes her some time to understand the Cabal’s harsh sounding dialect, but as she does, she suddenly gains new clarity on the sharp words exchanged in that snippet of memory when she gets blasted off her sparrow by a particularly keen Minotaur on Venus and into the brief flicker of death between resurrections.

 _“I don’t give a_ **_damn_ ** _if you think I’ll let that bloody insect walk all over us like this. Taking her is a guarantee he’ll give us a better deal than that beast-shit he tried to give us before if he wants to see her safe.”_

_“But his woman. She’ll - “_

_“_ **_Fuck his Awoken whore_ ** _. She knew what danger she was putting her brat in when she crawled into bed with him. Maybe it’ll put her in her place instead of lording it over the Palace like she does.”_

**\-- -- -- -- --**

Calliope almost vomits the first time she blows up a Servitor as a smell she can only equate to burnt sugar invades her helmet’s sensors from the cloud of Ether that belches out from the wrecked metal. She has to Blink away and yank off her helmet as she draws in desperate lungfuls of air like she’d been drowning, her eyes streaming with the invasive cloying scent.

“Calli?” Lethe chips at her shoulder, clearly worried, “Are you okay??”

She screws her eyes shut and for a moment she can almost see two different images in her head; alien hands dropping a dazzling crystal necklace over her head, and a meaty hand slamming over her mouth as she breathes in a scent all too akin to the burning Ether that feels scorched into the back of her nose.

“I - I’m good,” she replies as the smell seems to clear from the cloying heaviness that had almost overwhelmed her, “Just didn’t realise burning Ether could smell that bad, y’know?”

She’s not sure her Ghost truly believes her, but she’s not exactly certain she believes herself at this point either.

**\-- -- -- -- --**

“It’s not as rare as people make out that you Void users learn more about who you used to be than most of us do,” Valeriya explained, prodding at their campfire, “Kes tried to explain it to me before, said it was like she had to reach past watching herself die into the void before she could ever draw a Dusk Bow. An’ of course, you Warlocks have Thanatonautics to play around with if you’re after ‘secrets of the universe’.”

“Thanato-what now?” Calliope asked, curiosity piqued.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Lethe piped up, flitting between the two Guardians like an agitated hummingbird, “You _know_ she’s not allowed to try that without explicit approval from the order, Val!”

“I’m just sayin’, Little Light,” Val replied, holding her hands up in an attempt to pacify the Ghost, “Trying to find out the secrets to life, the universe and everything by dying over and over again isn’t exactly a new theory among Guardians, _especially_ for Warlocks.”

Calliope remains quiet as she digests this new possible avenue for making sense of these images that have plagued her for so long, even though she’s certain Lethe can feel her burning curiosity through their link as the Ghost almost side-eyes her silence. Maybe she can learn a _few_ things without getting reckless…

**\-- -- -- -- --**

Maybe...maybe she does get a touch reckless over the next few years; allowing Vex Hobgoblins to snipe her out of the air as she leaps for cover, not moving as quickly as she could to escape clouds of Hive Wizard poison. It’s nothing to the extent she’s heard others talk about Thanatonauts who delved too far into their studies (she absolutely _will not_ allow herself to be talked of in hushed whispers the way people talk about Toland), and it’s nothing she can’t pass off as a slip in awareness mid-mission to appease her clearly suspicious Ghost. But there’s very few new insights she gains into these strange memories, leaving her frustrated at the wall she seemed to have found herself facing.

That is, until she arrives on the Tangled Shore.

Cayde’s murder has rocked the Tower, and there is no way she’s about to allow Ace to walk this path without all the friends she can get after she’d been around the young Hunter since her revival. Yet the last thing she expects as she descends into the Spider’s bunker to introduce herself with Ace, she’s struck with such a violent sense of recognition at the sight of his ‘throne room’ that her footsteps grind to a halt on the threshold, jaw hanging open as she stares openly at an Eliksni face that has haunted her dreams since she first awoke.

What she _certainly_ doesn’t expect to see as her silver eyes lock with his sharp blue ones, is the look of genuine surprise that flits across Spider’s face before he schools it back into professional stoicism and deep familiar laughter rumbles over her.

“Well, if it isn’t the little Bluebell. Finally returned to my Shore. And as a _Lightmonger_ , no less.”

“You...know me?” it’s still a lot to take in that she’s suddenly been thrust into the presence of someone who might have the answers to questions she’s had for years, and at her side she’s vaguely aware of Ace slowly angling to put herself between her and the Spider (she’s never been more grateful for her friend’s wolf-like loyalty than she is now), “Because I don’t believe we’ve been introduced yet.”

“Better than you know yourself, I’d wager, dear Calliope,” there’s an odd thrill of familiarity she has no anchor point for that washes through her at the sound of her name, “You Guardians aren’t exactly known for retaining memories of your old lives.”

There’s a brief moment as his words sink in before a spark of mischief ignites in her chest alongside familiar burning curiosity, and she can’t help the grin that pulls at the corner of her mouth as she cocks her head to one side.

“And what _exactly_ would you be willing to wager?” this time the words leave her mouth in Eliksni, making Spider let out a short bark of laughter while both Ace and Lethe spin to stare at her, “If I wanted to find out what you know.”

“Cal…” there’s concern in Ace’s gaze as she glances over at the Hunter, the redhead clearly worried about whatever deal she was about to make with the mob boss, “ _Be. Careful._ ”

Calliope nodded slightly at Ace and shot her a small reassuring smile before she turned her attention back to Spider.

“Well, I do have an.. _.issue_ growing beneath the Shore that’s proving rather troublesome to stamp out,” Spider growled, a smirk all too evident in his words even behind his Ether mask, “Your cunning friend here has already proved herself quite capable with a little _cleansing fire_. You see what you can do about it, and I might have a few things I’ll be willing to share.”

**\-- -- -- -- --**

Almost as soon as she, Hathor and Ace fight their way into the more Hive controlled portions of Hellrise Canyon, there’s an instinctual fear that sets the hairs on the back of Calliope’s neck on end. There’s an almost claustrophobic quality to the tunnels that calls back to her first true memories of her Guardian life, but this time, there is the promise of true answers to her questions that draws her deeper rather than a feral mob of gnashing teeth and sharp claws. She definitely feels a touch of guilt at Ace agreeing to help her with this mess when she has such a bigger issue to deal with here in the Reef, but the Hunter has known her long enough to understand just why she’d been so willing to bargain with the Spider. There’s not many among their group of friends who’ve been lucky enough to regain something of their old life, and Ace had been determined that Calliope not lose the chance to reconnect with hers, quashing any potential protests.

In Anânh rages at the massacre of her brood as they doggedly chase her into the bowels of the canyon until they reach the heart of her nest, leaving the Brood Queen nowhere else to flee. As Ace flings a fan of scorching knives into In Anânh’s shade, the Queen herself readies a surge of solar energy that for once, Calliope does her best to avoid. Yet before she can slide into Hathor’s Ward of Dawn or behind a stalagmite, the wave of fire crashes over her and plunges her into darkness.

* * *

_“Calliope, darling!” her mother calls from the other room, “Come here a moment, please.”_

_She abandons her sketchbook and moves to the doorway, though she finds herself lingering in the doorway nervously as she sees who her mother is standing with. Eliksni aren’t an unfamiliar sight for her, but this particular one is so much_ **_bigger_ ** _than those who work in the Palace she’s met before. Her mother shoots her a reassuring smile and reaches a hand out for her to take, giving her fingers a light squeeze of reassurance as Calliope works the fingers of her other hand into her skirt._

_“There’s someone I’d like you to meet,” her mother murmurs, softly stroking her hair, “This is Spider.”_

_“So this is the little gem you’ve been keeping locked away all this time, Persephone,” his voice is a deep rumble she finds oddly reassuring as she continues to stare wide-eyed at this huge Eliksni, “It’s good to meet you again, Calliope.”_

_She looks up at her mother at those words, frowning in confusion, and Persephone laughs gently._

_“You were too small to remember the last time you and Spider met. It was a long time ago.”_

_Nodding as she accepted the new information, she turned back to Spider._

_“It’s nice to meet you too,” she chirps back in Eliksni, making Spider laugh._

_“You’ve taught her well,” he said as her mother bends down with an affectionate laugh to press a kiss to the top of her head._

_“She’s an avid student,” Persephone replies, “Now Cali, dearest, can you do me a favour and go find Zani and ask her to bring up the datapads from my office? Spider and I need to talk over a few things about the Palace.”_

_“Yes Mom,” she nodded, but before she could leave, one of Spider’s lower hands rested on her shoulder to stop her._

_“Something before you scurry off, Little One,” he explained as he produced a necklace from somewhere in his armour and placed it over her head, a brilliant blueish purple crystal entwined with silver wire to attach it to its chain, “Direct from the Crystal Barrows.”_

_Her eyes are wide as she takes in the gem, looking up at Spider with amazement at the gift._

_“Thank you!” she gasped before remembering what her mother had asked and making a beeline for the other door. Behind her, she catches her mother saying what sounds like ‘you didn’t have to do that’ while Spider’s response is lost in the noise of the Palace outside._

_This particular corner of the huge complex of is as familiar to her as her own rooms above, but it’s still incredibly busy. As she darts down the stairs and moves to hop up on one of the few empty tables to get a good look to see if Zani is down here among the patrons, she doesn’t even get a foot up on the chair before a huge meaty hand grabs her arm and lifts her bodily backwards into a service hall, their other hand slamming over her mouth before she can even scream as the door slams shut. Some sort of mask is pressed firmly against her face and her senses begin to spin as a sickly sweet smell invades her senses, sending her world into blackness._

**\-- -- -- -- --**

_“I don’t give a_ **_damn_ ** _if you think I’ll let that bloody insect walk all over us like this. Taking her is a guarantee he’ll give us a better deal than that beast-shit he tried to give us before if he wants to see her safe.”_

_Calliope wakes briefly in an unfamiliar room, all sharp angles and harsh militaristic metal unlike the worn curved design of the Palace and its Eliksni construction. Despite her swimming vision and the taste of bile threatening to creep up her throat, she manages to process the fact she’s in some sort of cage like those she’s seen used to take Cabal war beasts into other parts of the Palace, and her wrists are bound in front of her. Whatever had been in that mask has set her stomach churning and the whole room feels as though it’s swaying around her, and it’s all she can do to curl up into a ball and screw her eyes shut with a whimper as the Ulurant being spoken nearby washes over her._

_“But his woman. She’ll - “_

_“_ **_Fuck his Awoken whore_ ** _. She knew what danger she was putting her brat in when she crawled into bed with him. Maybe it’ll put her in her place instead of lording it over the Palace like she does.”_

**\-- -- -- -- --**

_“I have to say, I’m disappointed you chose to follow this road, Vamal.”_

_She has no idea how much time has passed when she’s pulled back into awareness by the familiar sound of Spider’s voice, forcing herself to open her eyes. Despite a half-hearted tarp being thrown over her prison, she can see around it and through a nearby doorway where Spider was talking with a Cabal in a somewhat sagging pressure suit, one tusk curling up from their lower jaw as they chuckled darkly._

_“Oh, you’re the one who made this choice, Spider. That haul we came in with was worth_ **_at least_ ** _twice more than the pittance you offered us. Maybe now, you’ll be willing to listen.”_

_“You know that’s not how this works. And I don’t respond well to threats.”_

_There’s a sharp whistle from Vamal and an unnoticed second Cabal soldier appears, pulling the cover off her prison to open the door and yank her out, making her cry out as they jerk her arm and set the room lurching around her once again. Something hard and metallic presses against her side and for a heartbeat, she thinks she can see fear flit across Spider’s eyes (though with how badly disorientated she feels right now she can’t say for certain)._

_“You really wanna test me, Big Guy?”_

_In a blink, one of Spider’s lower arms lashes out to sink a fist heavily into Vamal’s gut, long fingers curling into her belt to heft her bulk through the doorway in the direction of the soldier holding onto Calliope’s arm. In their surprise, they relinquish their grip and she manages to scramble out of the way of the fight, pressing herself between various crates as vicious combat breaks out. Most of it comes in scattered flashes; the loud crack of bone as Spider twists Vamal’s arm at an unnatural angle making her roar in pain before slamming her head hard into the floor, a burst of hot solar energy as he turns the rifle that had been held to her side by the other soldier in a burst of pressurised gel that splashes against her face, a wet crunch as Spider wrenches Vamal’s remaining tusk from her jaw before slamming his fist into her face over and over and_ **_over_ ** _-_

_It’s the sudden end of the fighting that snaps her back to reality, her own thundering heartbeat and rapid breathing combined with the harshness of Spider’s all she can hear. The huge Eliksni stands in the midst of more bodies than she remembers him fighting, the crumpled forms of a couple of Psions, at least three more Cabal and a war beast in a pool of dark blood joining Vamal - who is motionless save for laboured sticky breathing through what must be crushed nasal passages - and the soldier who’d held a gun to her. It’s almost impossible to believe he’s managed to take out this room full of people all on his own but...here he is. As she shifts in her hiding space, her foot collides with a dropped rifle, making it scrape against the metallic floor. Spider whips around with a snarl at the noise, making her flinch back with a whimper, before he seems to come back to himself, cautiously crouching down to her level after a moment but keeping a distance so as not to crowd her against the wall._

_“How about we get those off?” he asked gently, gesturing to the restraints still clamped around her wrists. After a moment, she slowly offers her hands for his help in freeing her. All Calliope seems to be able to focus on is the dark splashes of what must be blood against the white of his Ether mask before the cuffs fall away, “C’mon. Your mother will want to see you safe.”_

_By all rights, Calliope should be_ **_terrified_ ** _of the man she’d just watched tear through a room of people with his bare hands. She should be frozen in fear, locked in place until the familiar warm safety of her mother comes to coax her out herself. But the only logical thing her frazzled mind seems capable of doing is crawling out of her hiding spot and throwing her arms around Spider’s neck, trusting in the person who’d rescued her to return her home again. Beneath her hands, she feels him tense, awkwardly frozen as he tries to decide what to do about the tiny Awoken child clinging to him for dear life, before he lets out a low ‘hmm’ and scoops her up in his primary arms to carry her outside._

 _“_ **_Calliope_ ** _!”_

_Her mother’s voice makes her look up from where she’d buried her face against Spider’s armour, and as she reaches out for her, she’s swept up into the familiar comforting scent of her mother’s perfume as Spider relinquishes his grip._

_“Oh sweetheart I’m so sorry,” Persephone murmurs as she presses a relieved kiss to her cheek, “What did they_ **_do_ ** _to you?”_

_“Drugged her up with Ether to keep her quiet, for the most part,” Spider grumbles angrily, and Calliope is sure that’s one of his hands that brushes through her hair, “I can smell it all over her.”_

_Her mother pulls back slightly to gently lift Calliope’s face into the light to look at her eyes, making her squint as her head pulses painfully._

_“God that bitch could have_ **_killed her_ ** _. What was she_ **_thinking_ ** _?!”_

_“She’ll be fine,” Spider reassures her, “Get her home, let her rest and get her hydrated. Only thing you can do right now is try and flush it out of her system.”_

_“...Is Vamal still alive?” there’s a harsh coldness in her mother’s voice that Calliope hasn’t heard even when she’d been angry with her for breaking one of her datapads._

_“Mostly,” Spider replied with a short huff of laughter._

_“_ **_Good_ ** _. I want her taken to the Palace so I can deal with her myself. Nobody fucks with my daughter and gets away with it.”_

_“Why else do you think I left her alive, my dear?”_

* * *

Lethe brings her back right as Hathor unloads her shotgun in In Anân’s abdomen and the Queen disintegrates with a shriek into dust and chitinous plates, though Calliope barely even registers their victory at the swirling memory fragments that have plagued her for so long finally settles into a coherent form in her mind. It almost seems too bizarre to be true that she’d known Spider as a child, that she and her mother had lived in the Shore and that he had massacred a room of Cabal with his bare hands to save her life, but it’s there as clear as day; one solid sequence of memory in the otherwise blank void of her life before becoming a Guardian. It’s barely even been more than a few moments since the solar energy had incinerated her, but in that time, she’d finally been given the answers she’d been searching for.

Well, most of them.

Scrambling to her feet, Calliope moved over to the remains of In Anân, using her boot to toe through the remains until she uncovered what she was looking for; the rough exoskeletal structure of her skull, left behind like an abandoned helmet in much the same way Hive Knights crumbled on their defeat.

“Cal?” Ace asked as she stood back up, tucking her grizzly trophy under one arm, “You okay?”

“Yeah...I think so,” she nodded, “I’ve just...I’ve gotta go talk to Spider. Thank you for helping with this, you guys.”

“Hey, you followed me out here to help me. It’s only fair I help you when something like this drops into your lap,” Ace replied, moving to pull her into a quick hug, “Just comm Glitch if you need me.”

“I’ll be back to help you as soon as I can, Red,” Calliope replied, “Lethe, can you get us to Thieves’ Landing from down here?”

“Not a problem.”

Almost as soon as her boots touch down on hard ground, Calliope practically sprints into Spider’s bunker, transmatting her helmet away as she descends the stairs. Rather than being down in the throne room, Arrha and Avrok stand guard in the entry chamber, and she’s almost certain they’re expecting her.

“I’m here for Spider,” she announces in Eliksni, and the two guards move to allow her further into the bunker with a nod. As she rounds the corner, she’s surprised to see Spider’s throne gone, and a staircase descending further into the asteroid rock open in the spot where it had been only a few hours before.

“Spider?”

For a moment, she remains at the top of the steps, waiting to see if the crime lord will emerge, but there’s just silence as she waits, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. Adjusting her grip on the chitinous helm, she cautiously moves down the steps into the cool dry air of the chamber below. Logically, she knows he has to be keeping something special down here, but what she doesn’t expect is to walk into what she can only describe as a personal museum. Shelves of display cases line the walls, full of crowns and jewels, pottery and books; a veritable treasure trove of history clearly plundered from Earth or settlements such artifacts could have ended up in during the Golden Age. As she rounds a corner to come face to face with a wall of some of the most famous art in the world, she can’t help but stare in slack-jawed amazement, letting out a small giggle as Lethe materialises to inspect an _exquisitely_ detailed statue.

“Where in the name of the Traveler did he _get_ all of this?”

“Now wouldn’t that be telling.”

Spinning around, Calliope found Spider standing behind her, almost as though he’d materialised between her and the stairs back into his safehouse, though he’d likely been deeper among the shelves of his collection. Despite her initial shock at his sudden silent appearance, she forced herself to relax, hefting her trophy to toss it in his direction.

“Brought you a present.”

As he lifted it up to examine it, Spider chuckled darkly, turning to set it on a free spot on a nearby shelf.

“There’s a little vengeance you’ve been able to enact for yourself. And your mother. Though you might want to make sure Candace doesn’t go after Hiraks without you if you want to finish the job.”

At the mention of her mother, Calliope can’t help a sharp inhale, the ghost of her perfume washing over her again.

“You promised me answers if I went and took out your brood queen problem, Spider. I held my end of the deal, now it’s your turn.”

“Hmm,” he rumbled in an almost frustratingly non-committal manner, “I suppose it’s only fair. Let’s go somewhere more private.”

“More private than your hidden hoard?”

“Do you want me to talk or do you want to be smart about it?”

She opened her mouth for a moment to shoot back a reply before thinking better of it, instead giving him what she hoped was a winning smile.

“ _Heh_ , I thought so,” Spider smirked as he turned to move deeper into the hoard, “You haven’t really changed that much, little Lightmonger.”

Following him around the next set of displays, Calliope found herself in what she could only describe as a reading nook, this particular corner of the bunker dominated by a large chair much like the throne that usually hid the stairs, except this one was draped in various furs. As Spider settled into the bigger chair, Lethe nudged Calliope in the shoulder and indicated - almost hilariously, in comparison - a delicate looking chaise longue. Making sure she wasn’t about to get any Hive gunk from her robes on the seat, she toed off her grimy boots for Lethe to transmat away, drawing her feet up under her as she sat down.

“Well, I guess it’s pretty obvious at this point it was your mother I knew first. Persephone spent a long time on the Shore. Long as you were alive, at any rate.”

“How’d she end up here?”

“Decided she wanted more than a life in service to ‘Her Enlightened Majesty’, as she put it,” Spider replied, somewhat amused at the description, “She was one of Mara’s paladins, got caught smuggling gems and tech, and fled Awoken controlled space before she could be detained. Managed to run herself quite the little operation right under my nose before she came to my attention and I sent the boys in to bring her in for a little meeting.”

“Bet she loved that.”

“Oh, she was in no mood for talking. As it turns out you’d just been born a few hours beforehand, and she brought you along to that meeting too. Which was certainly a first in my line of work.”

Calliope couldn’t help but let out a sharp laugh at that revelation, pressing a hand to her mouth in an attempt to suppress the fits of giggles at the mental image. She could almost see it; Spider in his throne room, Arrha and Avrok in all their spiny armoured glory, the whole image set for intimidation, and then her mother sauntering into the room with a newborn baby in her arms to talk business with the resident mob boss. As soon as she’d sufficiently calmed down, Spider continued.

“We worked out a deal that allowed her to continue working on the Shore, though she was cutting me in on her operation now in exchange for you both moving into a suite in the Palace. Persephone was more than happy with running her own crew, but she found out my old pit boss and casino manager were cheating me out of a considerable amount of Glimmer, so when she raised it to my attention, she got _quite_ a promotion after the two of them...let’s say ‘retired’.”

“So she became queen of your underworld, alongside you as king?”

“I’m not sure I’d go that far.”

“I think Pluto and Proserpina back there might have something to say about that,” Calliope teased, pointing back in the direction of the statue Lethe had inspected when they’d first entered the bunker, “Seems like a particularly sentimental artistic choice of you.”

“ **Anyway** ,” Spider shot back, clearly unimpressed (though Calliope was pretty certain that his reaction also meant her deduction wasn’t necessarily wrong), “You worked for me for a time too, mostly on the information side of things, once you got older. You had a knack for finding all sorts of hidey holes in the Palace to listen to gossip and other tales you decided I might find useful...and I believe that’s where you heard the story that ended up getting you killed.”

“What story?” she asked quietly, almost uncomfortably aware of the sudden shift in the tone of their conversation.

“Asteroid 128, otherwise known as Nemesis,” he replied, one of his lower arms shifting to move over a keypad in the arm of the chair and activating a projection of the asteroid between them both, “Used to be an Awoken outpost until it was abandoned. Nobody really seemed to know why until some fool Captain lost his crew there and started spreading around stories of a veritable treasure trove of abandoned technology sitting in the middle of a Hive infestation and other more outlandish tales of the whole place vanishing into another reality. Maybe you were feeling a little too cooped up in the Palace and wanted your own adventure, but from what your mother found, you decided to go after the haul yourself and promptly disappeared. I hadn’t seen you or Persephone since, until today.”

“Mom followed me out there, I take it?”

“She would have walked through hell and back for you.”

“...yeah, she did that alright,” Calliope murmured, gaze locked on the projection. It was odd, hearing what had happened to her before Lethe had found her, but having no true anchors for the fact her mother had essentially walked into a nightmare with no guarantee she’d even be able to find her wayward daughter again, “That’s why you sent me after In Anân.”

“After your mother vanished, I did find out Nemesis was being used by the Mindbender for his infernal experiments with the Hive,” Spider replied, a distinct tone of anger and disgust in his words, “Seemed only fair when you wandered back into my web to offer you a little slice of revenge, since your friend is already going after Hiraks and the other barons.”

“I’m sure Ace will have no problem with me coming along when she finds out where he’s hiding. What’s one more murdered parent to get vengeance for? And **no** , you’re not allowed to use Cayde as any further leverage against whatever deal you made with her.”

“If I didn’t know you, I’d almost be offended at the insinuation, Calliope,” Spider replied, “But I won’t. What’s your earth phrase; ‘Hunter’s Honour’?”

“Have you ever _met_ a Hunter?” she grinned, “They’ve got the weirdest definition of honour in the system.”

As they both laughed, Lethe emerged to nudge at her shoulder to get her attention.

‘ _You should tell him about what you remembered_ ,’ she said across their personal connection, ‘ _He told you all of this. Only seems fair._ ’

Reaching to allow her Ghost to settle into her cupped hands in her lap, Calliope was silent for a moment, chewing on the inside of her lip as she decided how best to broach the subject of her newly returned memories.

“Did I ever thank you for saving my life, by the way?”

“For _what_?” she has to relish the confusion on Spider’s face for a moment before she continues.

“See, I know Guardians aren’t supposed to remember anything about who they once were, but I came back with these...flashes, I guess is the best way to describe them?” she explained, awkwardly rubbing at the back of her neck as she tried to find the words to describe the memories, “Nothing that ever really made a lot of sense, even when I did learn Ulurant again. It was all just fragmented, even though Guardians who use the Void supposedly have a greater chance of touching something on the other side. It wasn’t until I died in the fight we just had when it all seemed to just _click_ in the space between dying and coming back again. I’d been kidnapped to use against you and mom, apparently. And you beat an entire room of Cabal to death with your bare hands to rescue me.”

Spider was quiet after that, staring at her in what Calliope could only describe as some mix of surprise and fascination as he slouched back in his chair.

“Well aren’t you full of surprises, little Lightmonger.”

“Being a Guardian will do that,” she smiled slightly, “But really. I know I thanked you for that necklace - was still wearing it when I was revived actually - but thank you for saving me that day. Doubt I would have made much of a Guardian at seven.”

“...you’re welcome, kid.”

“And don’t worry. Your big scary crime boss reputation is safe with me.”

**Author's Note:**

> • Spider in combat is basically inspired by Kingpin in Netflix’s Daredevil. Namely that one scene where he beheads the dude with a car door in s1.  
> • His very sentimental sculpture is Bernini’s The Rape of Proserpina.  
> • Ace is Cayde’s daughter as she was created way back in y1 D2 when ‘Ace’ was just the name in the flashpoint journals and was never specified as his son or daughter either way.


End file.
